THE FORUMby The Unending Thread

The songs on the album:La Casa De Mi PadreFunParty at Gatsby'sI Don't CosplayValley BratWinnebagoAbdielaFoar BoxxyDaisy Chain Before I start into the album review, I’m going to give a little background. On January 3rd of this year I attended a Blackmore concert at the Troubadour and The Unending Thread was opened up the concert. After The Unending Thread’s performance, Cesar Alas (lead guitar and vocals) approached me with a copy of The Forum. My father and I have, since that day, listened to this album many times and have been thoroughly impressed. They definitely have one thing down that will separate them from other bands: the openings to songs. Their openings exude awesomeness like a classic Sum 41 opening. The album starts off with this really interesting guitar riff that has a great use of syncopation that many bands tend to overlook as a form of musicianship. The first line of this song is one of my favourite quotes of all time: “those who don’t know history are always doomed to repeat it.” I also enjoy this quote: “The best part of this journey, it hasn’t happened yet.” This song has a really epic guitar part that makes you want to headbang like crazy. Definitely a fun one. Cesar and Kim (lead vocals)’s voices always blend together beautifully which works really well with the music. Song two, “Fun,” mixes fast yet melodic guitar playing with their classic meld of vocals. It also has this surreal part in the middle where a soft background chord accompanies a light rhythm on top. Kim then sings like Evanescence, using the famous meloncholy-with-gusto style. A rhythmically creative guitar solo follows to end that phase of the song. “Party at Gatsby’s” starts off with a quiet and mysterious guitar riff that is soon joined by the other instruments until Cesar’s voice comes in and changes the mood. After a verse, an odd vocal comes in through that sounds somewhat like it’s being filtered through a loudspeaker. Later, the drummer plays a drum solo that piggybacks into an epic guitar solo. The rest of the song after that is purely instrumental and quite danceable. This next one is really a very cool song that also happens to have a music video that’s worth checking out. I’m not sure I can completely pinpoint what makes “I Don’t Cosplay” so good, but I think it’s at least partially due to the verses being sweetly sung by Kim with an echo-y guitar background. Plus, the guitar part during the chorus really creates a compelling sound. I’m not entirely sure what the song title, “I Don’t Cosplay” is meaning because cosplay is dressing up as a superhero or character from games or TV shows and such. It’s all up to your analyzing what you think this song means. The beginning of “Valley Brat” is really dancey and fun thanks to the drum beat. I swear I was bouncing in my seat every time I listened to it. After a quick beginning, the song slides into a more muddy section before switching back into the initial mood. This song also has a really cool synth beat that joins in about two and a half minutes into the song. This one line is repeated multiple times in the song and I took great humour in it so here it is: “We are the lovely valley brats. We’re fabulous, aren’t we?” “Winnebago” was my dad’s favourite song that The Unending Thread performed in concert. It has a cool upbeat thing going on in the intro that is carried on by the drums and occasionally joined in once again by the guitarists. After the first chorus, the drums get another solo! I love drums solos :) This song also has a brought out keyboard part and this really cool guitar riff that shows up approximately two and half minutes into the song. Following this, an a cappella part that includes hand clapping and escalates back into the full band playing. Great song! This next song, “Abdiela,” has a rather curious first 20 seconds; of course an awesome guitar riffs joins in and makes the music even better. I wonder if this song is a Romeo & Juliet reference, but it doesn’t really correlate. If you listen, Juliet loving her cat is brought up for a while which I entertaining. “Oh! No! Where’s Juliet?!” is repeated in a spoken word-ish manner at the very ending, so quite possibly it’s referencing the famous Shakespeare play instead of just using the name “Juliet.” The beginning of “Foar Boxxy” has two intricate guitar riffs that weave together really well. I decided to Google “foar boxxy,” trying to figure out what it meant. Apparently Boxxy is a character played by an internet celebrity/vlogger… I’m a little confused, maybe I should be spending more of my time on YouTube instead of watching Glee and doing homework. Did I mention that this song has an awesome guitar solo? Well, it does. The last song, “Daisy Chain,” startled me when it first started playing because one of the male vocalists was half screaming and there was this intense and heavy bass that is completely out of character compared to the rest of the album. There is a sort of back and forth going on between the screaming with the heavy sound and the sweet vocals with the more melodious sound. It’s just a very interesting song. Just go listen to it. This album is awesome and The Unending Thread is a small band. Give them some support and go listen to this album.

Zoe Adler is a music journalist from Long Beach, California. Besides her website, which is her pride and joy, she works with the GRAMMY Foundation and the Long Beach Independent. Additionally, Ms. Adler is a musician, spending half of her time playing the flute, piccolo, trombone, and marching baritone. She has been with TeenView Music since the very start and hopes to make something of it in the future.